ἄρσην

Forms

ᾰ̓́ρσην (ársēn) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓́ρσεν); third declension^[1] Attic ἄρρην (árrhēn), Ionic, Aeolic and Cretan ἔρσην (érsēn), and a Laconian nominative ἄρσης (ársēs).^[2][3][4] The spelling with ⟨ρσ⟩ prevails in the Septuagint and the New Testament, the one with ⟨ρρ⟩ in the papyri.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *(w)ə́rsēn,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wérsēn (“male”).^[1][6] Beekes reconstructs *u(e)rsēn (“male animal”): the Greek word continues its zero grade, as do Sanskrit ऋषभ (ṛṣabhá, “bull”) and Old Armenian առն (aṙn, “ram”), while the Ionic form ἔρσην (érsēn) has the full grade of Old Persian aršan (“man, male”), Latin verrēs and Lithuanian ver̃šis (“bull calf”).^[6][4][1] Chantraine calls it an old word, the generic name of the male of humans and animals alike.^[3][7]

The Greek forms show no trace of an initial digamma, as the Gortyn spelling ⟨ερσεν-⟩ shows.^[6] Pronk has argued that the initial *w- was lost in Greek, Armenian and part of Indo-Iranian inside a compound *gʷeh₃u-ursēn (“bull”), which survives in Tocharian and Old Norse words for the bull.^[6][1]

Ancient writers derived it from ἄρδω (árdō, “to water”), the male being the one who waters the female, and Epaphroditus from ἔρδω (érdō, “to do”), the male being the active partner.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it means male, of gods (“no female god and no male one”) and of animals, a male ox or male horses.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Tragedy and prose use it as a noun for a male, a man or a boy, and the neuter for the male sex.^[9][2] Figuratively it meant manly, and, of sounds, mighty: Sophocles speaks of the “male” roar of the sea.^[2][9] Theophrastus calls robust or coarse plants “male”, as against the tender “female” ones, and Aristophanes uses it of masculine nouns.^[2]

The New Testament has the spelling with ⟨ρσ⟩, the papyri more often the Attic one with ⟨ρρ⟩.^[2][5] The derivative ἀρσενικός (arsenikós) is found by the 4th century BC in Aristotle,^[11] and in vernacular medieval Greek it had the forms ασερνικός and σερνικός, still used in dialects.^[12] As Modern Greek αρσενικός (arsenikós) it is the Modern Greek word for “male”.^[13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of male gods, oxen and horses.^[2][9]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the neuter for the male sex.^[2][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus writes the Ionic form ἔρσην (érsēn), and Sophocles uses the word of the mighty roar of the sea.^[2][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes applies it to masculine nouns, and Plato writes the Attic ἄρρην (árrhēn).^[2][7]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus calls robust or coarse plants “male”.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament writes it with ⟨ρσ⟩.^[2][5]
• Modern Greek – The derivative αρσενικός (arsenikós) is the ordinary word for “male”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Male, of gods, people and their offspring.^[2][9]
2. Male, of animals, birds, fish and plants.^[9][2]
3. As a noun: a male, a man, a boy; the neuter, the male sex or masculinity.^[9]
4. (figurative) Manly, masculine; of sounds, mighty; of plants, sturdy or coarse.^[2][9]
5. (grammar) Masculine, of nouns.^[2][9]

Word family

• ἀρρενωπία (arrenōpía)
• ἀρρενωπός (arrenōpós)
• ἀρσενικός (arsenikós)
• ἀρσενογενής (arsenogenḗs)
• ἀρρενοκοίτης (arrhenokoítēs)
• ἀρρενόομαι (arrenóomai)
• ἀρρενόπαις (arrenópais)
• ἀρρενότης (arrenótēs)
• ἀρσενικόν (arsenikón)
• ἀρσένιον (arsénion)
• ἀρσένιος (arsénios)

Related words

• Latin verrēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
6. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki